Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74575 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74575 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
“We were.” My throat tightened as I told him, “They both died a few months before my eighteenth birthday.”
“Oh, damn. I’m sorry, Elsie. I had no idea.”
“It’s fine. There’s no way you could’ve known, and it was a long time ago.”
“Still. That had to be hard.” His eyes were filled with sadness as he asked, “Did you have anyone to help you get through it? A brother or a sister?”
“Afraid not.” I didn’t like the shift in our lighthearted mood, so I decided not to tell him about Brantley. Instead, I told him, “I was lucky enough to meet some wonderful people who helped me get back on my feet.”
“That’s great. I’m really glad to hear that.” A soft smile crossed his face as he said, “Maybe I can meet these wonderful people some time.”
“Maybe so.” In hopes of getting our night back on track, I leaned back in my chair and cocked my brow. “Enough about me. I want to know more about you... How ‘bout you tell me something you wouldn’t typically share on a first date.”
“Hmmm. That’s a tough one.” He thought for a moment, then said, “I guess I’d have to go with the fact that I like chick flicks, especially sappy ones where there’s a twist in the end, and the guy and girl end up together.”
“Awe. He’s a romantic.”
“What can I say?” He chuckled with a shrug. “I like a happy ending.”
I liked happy endings, too, but I didn’t see one in our future—at least, not like the one you’d find in movies. It would take a lot more than a surprise twist for me to land the man of my dreams—it would take a miracle, and unfortunately, miracles were in short supply in stories like mine.
CHAPTER 4
Bones
I hadn’t slept a wink.
I’d spent the entire night fixating over Elsie’s fucking date. I wanted to know if she’d had a good time with him, if she’d laughed with him, or if she’d told him the stories she’d once told me. I wanted to know if he’d fucking touched her, kissed her, or made plans to see her again. The rational side of me knew it was not my concern. Elsie had every right to go out with whomever she wanted. But my irrational side believed Elsie was mine, and it had me tied up in knots and unable to sleep.
I was tired of tossing and turning, so I decided to just give it up. I got out of bed and headed to the bathroom. After I turned on the shower, I took off my clothes, then stepped under the hot stream of water. In a matter of seconds, I could feel the tension in my body start to dissipate, but sadly, it did little to distract me from how incredible Elsie looked when she left for her date. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Elsie staring at me with one of her heated looks, and it only made my cock ache even more.
When I couldn’t take it any longer, I reached down and wrapped my fingers around my thick cock, then slowly started stroking up and down. My breath quickened as I imagined Elsie in my arms. Her body close. Her breasts pressed against my chest. One thought led to another, and it wasn’t long before I was imagining her in my bed with her little whimpers and moans echoing through the room.
Everything about her had me spiraling more and more out of control. Her smile. Her voice. Her scent. Fuck. That’s all it took. My breath caught, and I came long and hard. I hoped it would be enough to take the edge off and to ease the tension that was building in my gut, but as I stepped out of the shower and started drying off, I quickly realized the knot in my stomach was still there.
I knew then it was going to be a long day.
I threw on my clothes, brushed my teeth, and headed to the conference room to meet up with Big. We were meeting with Cotton and the others to discuss the intel we’d gathered, but there was just one problem.
The intel was useless.
All of it.
“We’re wasting our time. We’ve been through all this.” Big tossed one of the files across the table as he huffed, “If there was something to find, we would’ve already found it.”
“I thought you guys found something with the cameras.”
“It was another dead end.” Big motioned his hand over the stack of intel we’d collected over the past few weeks and groaned, “It’s all just a bunch of dead ends.”
“He’s right.” Big and I spent days going from one camera to the next, but each and every one of them ended up being a waste of our fucking time. They were either no longer in service or belonged to someone in the area. I lowered my head in shame as I pushed my chair away from the table. “We’ve been over and over this shit, and there’s nothing to be found.”